Pole sitters have won nine times in the 54-year history of the Daytona 500.

“Can I win?” Patrick said. “Yeah. Absolutely. I believe the statistic is a 17 percent chance starting from the pole. … I feel comfortable in this kind of race situation.

“I feel comfortable in the draft. Speeds are not a problem. For me, it’s just about finding out how to pass cars and who I need to do it with, if I need somebody, how to use them and the best ways to get by.”

Patrick, who started 29th and was collected in a crash after just one lap a year ago, has more confidence this year after having run 10 Sprint Cup races last season. She also has a fast racecar.

In her second full NASCAR season and fourth overall, Patrick is trying to become the first winner from the pole since Dale Jarrett in 2000.

She said she will race aggressively and worry less about making friends or getting shuffled to the back.

“One of the things that I’ve worried a little bit too much about on these speedways is being really fair and caring about every single driver out there and trying to show them I’m loyal,” Patrick said.

“You end up noticing a lot of the guys in the front that they go. When other drivers see someone that wants to go, they want to go, too, and they will go with them. I just need to be a little more aggressive from that standpoint.”

The 30-year-old driver played it safe during her qualifying race Thursday, finishing 17th while accomplishing her mission of avoiding a wreck with her pole-winning car. She ran 32 laps in practice Friday in a pack of five cars at the most.

She won’t practice Saturday and really hasn’t worked her way through the field in the draft.

“It’s a 500-mile race—she’s going to learn a lot during the race as well from what she learned (Thursday),” said her team owner Tony Stewart. “Her car was tight. She just didn’t have the car to get up there. She had speed, and today in practice, her car was really fast.

“She has the car she needs. It’s just a matter of being in the right positions. We saw (Thursday), it’s hard to be in the right positions. The 500 miles will be a trial-and-error process, including her.”

Patrick will start from the outside lane Sunday because the high line worked better during the qualifying races Thursday.

“She has got the talent,” crew chief Tony Gibson said. “She has got the ability. And she’s already proven in the Nationwide Series, on the speedway stuff, she definitely gets the respect.

“She’s fast. She can draft. She knows how the air works. She gets a lot of that from IndyCar. I am 100 percent confident she can win the Daytona 500.”

Gibson has confidence because he thinks Patrick has a car capable of running up front.

“We’ve got speed and she can definitely get it done,” Gibson said. “We’ve got some partners out there that seem to be committed to helping us.

“We’ve been holding her back. We haven’t been letting her race and I know it’s frustrating to try to protect your racecar. We’re going to cut her loose on Sunday. I told her she can treat it like a video game.”

In a video game, though, there is a reset button and another race if it ends because of a crash. Patrick has crashed more than she has finished on the lead lap in her career at Daytona.

“I’m thinking about more of what I have to do more than what’s going to happen,” Patrick said. “It doesn’t do me any good to think about what’s going to happen.”

But can she really win?

“I know I’m inexperienced, and I know that I’m a rookie out there,” Patrick said. “I will do the best job I can. I believe I do have a chance to win.

“I do believe experience would help, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t have a chance to win.”